Walter Lee Hartenberger, who was affectionately known as "Fritz", was born in Mitchell, South Dakota to the Rev. and Mrs. E.K. (Edmund and Esther) Hartenberger on May 22, 1928.
After graduating from Concordia High School in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1946, Fritz enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served on the U.S.S. Sennett in Panama. He was honorably discharged in 1948. While attending Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, Fritz met Mary Reckdahl. Fritz's Dad was to marry the couple, but he insisted that Fritz sell his beloved motorcycle first, as he refused to support "Fritz's widow". Fritz promptly sold the motorcycle and wed his "Miss America" on July 27, 1950. (Fritz waited a few months before buying a new bike.) They welcomed their first daughter, Manette, in 1951. He subsequently received his B.A. in Art and History in 1952.
Fritz was a lifelong Educator. He took his first high school teaching job in East Grand Forks, MN, while he worked to receive his Masters in Art. Not only did he instruct the students in Art and History, but he also taught Driver's Education and led the after-school Rifle Club. He and Mary were blessed with the birth of their second child, Brett, in 1954.
Over the next ten years, Fritz continued to teach Art and History in Great Falls, MT, Milwaukee, WI and Long Island, NY. Their second daughter Shari was born in 1956 in Wisconsin.
While in New York, Fritz came up with a plan to help the "over-advantaged" kids he met at the private Lutheran High School in which he taught. In 1964, he and Mary purchased a Dude ranch in Augusta, Montana, and started preparations for a camp to help ground the kids. The "Great Flood of 1964" washed the ranch away. Before they left, the family forded the river, and gained experience as wranglers as they gathered the 52 horses which had fled up into the mountains.
Undaunted, the family moved back to North Dakota, where Fritz received his E. S. D., and went into Administration. Mary went to work for the college, and the family lived in an old farmhouse.
Fritz took his first Superintendent position in the remote town of Moccasin MT, where daughter Cami was born in 1966. Fritz pioneered a system of sharing services between the small schools in the district, and was consequently hired by Northwest Regional Educational Lab in Portland. The family moved to Lake Oswego, OR, where son Jason was born in 1969. Fritz found his passion working with the Small Schools Program.
When Fritz became a Superintendent in Alaska, the family moved to the Kenai Penisula. From days with no sunlight or darkness, to ice-fishing and riding snowmobiles, the year was full of adventure.
When the family returned to Lake Oswego, Fritz formed his own company called "School Futures". He traveled extensively throughout Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii, where he developed and implemented self-instructed teaching systems to help the most rural students thrive.
Fritz and Mary sold the company in 1978, took Cami and Jason out of school, and traveled throughout the West with trailer and boat in tow. When the family returned home, they cared for Fritz's mother until her passing. His 'first retirement' lasted until 1984, when he acted as Superintendent in Ukiah, Oregon until his '2nd retirement' in 1986.
Fritz and Mary lived in the Senior Estates in Woodburn, Oregon for the next 15 years, and finally moved to Beaverton in 2006.
Fritz's health had been declining for a number of years, and he was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy in 2008. Although the disease affected his ability to move and speak, his wit and sense of humor were left intact. Fritz always had a unique way of disarming people, and he immediately befriended each stranger. His love for his family and all his friends, old and new, never diminished.